


Lessons in Language

by TheGrimLlama



Series: supercorp trash team compilation [7]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Kara doesn't think things through, Lena is a dork who reads text books in other languages for fun, Maggie is done with Kara's crap, almost a coffee shop AU?, there might be a language barrier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 16:39:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11673018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrimLlama/pseuds/TheGrimLlama
Summary: “Kara, you just… Have you told Alex?”  Maggie watched the blood drain from Kara’s face.  Clearly she was worried about how her sister was going to take this news, even if she didn’t want to say it.“No, I’m freaking out because I just signed up for ASL lessons… just so I can ask a girl out!”“Could you not just slip her a phone number and communicate via text?”“Look, I’ll admit I might not have thought this through entirely.  But the classes are already paid so…  Can we just pretend that I had to save someone who was hearing impaired and I was enlightened and decided to learn for them?”





	Lessons in Language

It was a busy morning at Home Brew.  Kara had never seen this many customers in her favourite cafe before.  Judging by the amount of patrons on their phones, it might have something to do with the new ordering system that they’ve put into place.  She greeted Sabine, the thursday morning barista, and put in her order for her usual coffee and three sticky buns.  

 “No problem, Kara.  We’re a bit busy, but if you want to just take a seat at table 8, I’ll bring it over.”

 “Relax, Sabine.  I’m not in any rush.”  She walked over to table 8 noticing an unfamiliar face sitting on the other side of the booth.  She smiled to herself.  One of the great things about Home Brew was the seating arrangements.  If you were dining alone, you’d be seated with other lone diners, you didn’t have to speak, or even acknowledge them, but Kara had made several new friends this way.  She motioned at the seat across from the woman, whose lips quirked into a smile as she nodded at the seat across. 

 “Thanks.  I’m Kar…” Kara looked back at the woman, her face was buried back in her book, almost as if she hadn’t heard a word Kara had said.  

Kara studied her for a bit longer, focusing on the long, black lashes brushing the lenses of her large glasses.  She seemed to be in a world of her own, green eyes skimming the text of… was that Russian?  Yep, that was Russian.  

 

Sabine came over with a tray, placing two coffees and Kara’s mountain of sticky buns in front of them.  

 “There you are, Kara.” Sabine placed the second coffee in front of the woman who glanced up to offer Sabine a smile and an amused glance at Kara’s breakfast before resuming her reading.  

Kara thanked Sabine and finished her breakfast quickly, but not fast enough to garner attention from woman in front of her.  

Maybe she only spoke Russian?  

So Kara made a decision.

It was worth a shot.  

She waved her hand, catching the woman’s attention.  “до завтра.”  

 

All she received in return was a curious smile and wave.  Maybe Russian wasn’t the language Kara needed to focus on.  

 

***

 

It was another week before it clicked.  Kara had seen the woman four times, each time she greeted her in a different language, each time, she never looked up from whichever book she was reading for the day.  Kara ordered her coffee as usual but groaned as she was called away on Super duties.  “Can you deliver that and a strawberry doughnut to table 8, Sabine?”  

 “Not hanging around today, Kara?” Sabine asked, putting the order through.  

 “Just got a call from my sister.  She’s locked her keys in the house.”

Sabine winced, “Yeesh.  That sucks.  Well, I’m sure Lena will appreciate this.”

 “Lena?”

 “Yeah, at least, that’s the name she orders under.  Always using the new system.  Honestly, I’ve never heard her say a word.  But she’s always polite and smiles.”

 “Oh my gosh… It makes so much sense… Fudge… Sorry, Alex is calling again,” Kara said, she rushed out of Home Brew, barely rounding the corner of the alleyway before changing into her suit.  Hopefully, the DEO would collect her clothes before Sabine found them.

 

***

 

Maggie rolled her eyes as Kara, in full Super suit, spun herself around in the computer chair.  She’d been a little off center for the last few days and Maggie was determined to find out what the deal was.  It was her job to know things.  

Kara sighed, for probably the fourth time this hour, so Maggie grabbed the arms of the chair, jerking it to a stop.  “Um, rude.”

 “Kara, you have been huffing and out of it for the last three days… What gives, honey?”  Kara looked up, her blue eyes widened, and Maggie noticed the beginnings of a super pout, “No! Why are you pouting?  What the hell?”

 “I can’t talk about it here....”  

 “Fine.”  Maggie grabbed her hand and dragged her into the training room, sealing the door shut with her palm.  “Here you go… No one to overhear.  Spill it, Supes.”

 “Ugh!” Kara started pacing, her cape billowing behind her, it was almost impressive… Well, it would have been if she didn’t look like she was going to pass out from nerves.  “I… Kinda met someone?”

_Oh_.  Maggie was not expecting that.  Not at all.

 “I mean…  We haven’t spoken…”

Kara Danvers? Not talking? Not initiating a conversation? What was happening?  “Okay, I can work with this… You’ve met someone, that’s great, Kara!  So what’s his name?”

 

Maggie watched Kara’s pacing halt rapidly, not even looking at Maggie when she opened her mouth, “Here’s the thing.  I don’t know _her_ name.”

 

 “Whoa! Hold up…?  Her?” Maggie gaped.  Had a portal to another timeline opened up?  Was Maggie experiencing the Multiverse first hand? “Her…?”

Kara rolled her eyes, snapping her fingers in the direction of her sister-in-law as she began pacing again.  “Maggie, focus!”

 “Kara, you just… Have you told Alex?”  Maggie watched the blood drain from Kara’s face.  Clearly she was worried about how her sister was going to take this news, even if she didn’t want to say it.  

 “No, I’m freaking out because I just signed up for ASL lessons… just so I can ask a girl out!”

Maggie tried not to laugh. She tried really hard, but trust Kara Danvers to learn sign language to quench her thirst.  “Maggie!  Stop laughing…”

 “Ah, that’s… that’s a thing that I might struggle to do…  Could you not just slip her a phone number and communicate via text?”

 “But… Look, I’ll admit I might not have thought this through entirely.  But the classes are already paid so…  Can we just pretend that I had to save someone who was hearing impaired and I was enlightened and decided to learn for them?”  Kara stopped pacing and turned back to Maggie, who was still struggling to control her laughter.  

 “Don’t lie to your sister, Kara.  Just… She’ll laugh, sure… but she’ll find out eventually right?”  Maggie patted the seat next to her and pulled the superhero down, “So, shall I plan a movie night for you two?  I can go hang elsewhere for the night?”

 “Or you could just stay for pizza and potstickers?”

 “Alright, stop trying to twist my arm, Little Danvers.”

 

***

 

Alex had taken it better than Kara had expected.  She’d laughed, laughed until Maggie tossed a pillow at her face.  Kara was grateful that Maggie was there to reign in Alex’s mirth.  

_(“Alex, your sister is essentially coming out to you.  Respect it.  I can stop referring to you as_ **_The Baby Gay_ ** _now.”)_

Kara had picked up her lessons quickly.  She’d always been good at learning languages.  She thanked the Kryptonian learning programs embedded into the software of her pod, running through various Human languages and dialects.  They were all... kind of just stuck in there waiting to be unlocked, but once Kara actively started learning, she picked it up within a few weeks. ASL was no different.  Her teacher, a middle aged woman named Penelope, was surprised at how quickly Kara had picked it up, leaving Kara trying think up excuses as to why her brain seemed to work three times faster than Penny’s average student.  

 

Within 3 weeks, Kara had picked up enough from Penny to hold a basic conversation.  She was careful not to show her newly acquired skills to Lena, settling for a smile and a nod, as usual.  She’d occasionally buy Lena’s breakfast, Lena would often repay the favour the next day, leaving Kara hopeful that maybe, just maybe this was going to work.

 

***

 

Lena had never been a morning person.  She didn’t sleep enough to be well rested and chipper in the morning, so any social interaction before her second cup of coffee was a challenge.  

Luckily for Lena, her new favourite cafe factored in people like Lena, between the hours of 4am and 9am, allowing customers to order via their smartphone app and have it delivered to their table.  Lena had been frequenting the same cafe for nearly four weeks, always sitting at the same table, always having her coffee delivered at the same time, four days a week, sharing the table with a cute blonde in large glasses and lots of pastel.  

The first week had been slightly awkward for Lena, every time the blonde greeted her, she’d missed it completely thanks to the noise cancelling feature on her ear buds.  And by this stage, she was too painfully gay to actually introduce herself to the gorgeous woman who was kind enough to smile whenever she left their table.  

It was especially bad after the odd days when the blonde didn’t show up, but somehow, a second coffee and a pastry always made its way to their table, along with a cheeky smirk from whichever barista was on that day.  Lena was always quick to order the same for the next day with the note _For the blonde at table 8_.     

Today was different though.

It had been a month since she’d started sharing her mornings with this stranger.  

Three weeks since the girl had actually tried to initiate conversation, so it was surprising to Lena, when the blonde sat across from her and waved a hand to catch Lena’s eye.  

She made a few hurried movements, Lena recognising a few, but not enough to answer.  She assumed that this girl was attempting to introduce herself using ASL.  

Lena flicked a hand under her hair, happy that she finally had a chance to actually say hello to the stranger who occasionally brought her breakfast.  She flicked the ear bud out, her hearing slowly adjusting to the white noise of the cafe, “I’m sorry, I don’t read sign…”

The woman’s eyes widened, mouth dropping into a confused, “Oh!”  

Lena raised an eyebrow, “I’m Lena… Sorry, I just…”

  “You can hear?”

Lena took a moment to assess the current situation.  The blonde stared at her with an odd expression, “Yes, I just… I wear these to drown out the noise.”  She exposed the earbuds in her palm, “Sorry for ignoring you.”

The woman giggled, honest to God, giggled, and if Lena was confused about her sexuality before hand, she certainly was no longer.   The woman managed to stifle her giggles slightly, “I’m sorry… I just… I tried, English, Russian, Greek, Italian… and I never got an answer, so I went and started learning ASL.”

It was Lena’s turn to laugh, “You learned ASL…?  To speak to me…?”  Surely not.  Things like this didn’t happen to Lena.  

The woman’s face turned bright red, “I mean… Yeah?  I just thought… I’m sorry for assuming…”

Wow.  It did happen.  Lena chuckled,  “It’s actually really sweet.  What’s your name?”

 “Kara?”

 “You don’t sound sure…?” Lena replied, sipping the last of her coffee in an attempt to keep her calm exterior, while the giddiness inside grew.  Kara learned sign language just to say hello.  Jess was never going to believe this.

Kara frowned, “I’m still kinda processing the fact that I spent three weeks avidly learning sign only to find out that you were just listening to…music?”

Lena bit her lip and ducked her head, this was her chance, “How about I make it up to you with dinner?  You can spend an entire evening talking my ear off, in whichever language you choose.”  

 “Um… Wow,” Lena watched, her amusement growing as Kara stumbled over her words, Lena was definitely not the only one freaking out over this whole situation.  “Yeah, um… Okay. Great!”

Lena tucked her earbuds into their case and popped it back into her messenger bag, as Sabine delivered their coffees, “Thank you, Sabine.”

Clearly Sabine was just as surprised as Kara, at the sound of Lena’s voice.  “Oh my God…”  

Kara was quick to steady the tray, almost too quick for someone who’d yet to have their first coffee of the day.  “I’m so sorry…”

 “It’s okay, I’m afraid I’m having that effect on people this morning…”  Lena had barely got the words out before the barista took off behind the counter, leaving Kara still holding the tray.  Kara placed the tray down onto the table, “So… about dinner…”

 

***

 

 

до завтра _\- till tomorrow_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, feel free to come and scream at me on Tumblr... @thegrimllama 
> 
> there's plenty more of this ridiculousness over there.


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